Mophead



May 19, 1970 v. P. M CLELLAN, JR 3,512,203

I MOPHEAD Filed Nov. 6, 1967 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l8 IO FIG. I

' (PRIOR ART) I M) I V E f H6. 2 22 140mm ART) fi w'i fiww J $$QQ I8 K4 M7 4/1 1 \l i 22 I2 20 2o 20 FIG. 4 30 INVENTOR. VAN P. M CLELLAN, JR.

BY M 734%- ATTORNEY y 5 1970 v v P. MOCLELLAN, JR.

MOPHEAD 2 SheetsSheet Filed Nov.

INVENTOR. VAN P. MCLELLAN, JR.

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,512,203 MOPHEAD Van P. McClellan, Jr., 608 Scott Ave., Greensboro, NC. 27403 Filed Nov. 6, 1967, Ser. No. 680,664 Int. Cl. A47l 13/24 US. Cl. 229 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to mopheads, and more particularly, to a mophead wherein the mid-portions of the strands forming the mophead are bonded together with a suitable plastic material which surrounds and penetrates the strands to completely secure them together, and there is also provided a novel means for attaching the mophead to a handle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in wet mops employed for washing floors as distinguished from dust mops and the like which are employed for taking up dry dust and are usually impregnated with some oil or other dust catching substance. These wet mops generally comprise a plurality of separate strands of so-called mop yarn, each strand including several absorbent yarn fibers twisted together. The separate strands are grouped and fastened together at their midpoint with a strip of heavy fabric tape or the like sewed to and around the strands of absorbent material.

In attempting to adapt this type of mophead to more modern assembly line techniques for mass production, the following method has been generally developed. The absorbent strands are fed into a system of rollers from spools mounted in a group at one end of the assembly line. The rollers gather the strands and bunch them together in the general shape of a mophead. The bunched strands are then cut to length, wrapped with the strip of tape, and moved transversely into a sewing machine in order to sew the tape to and around the separate strands. The process is set up so that one mophead immediately succeeds the preceding mophead into the sewing machine, and the sewing process is accomplished by chain stitching and continues from the tape of one mophead on to the next without a break.

Generally, this technique produces a mophead which is unsatisfactory, since many of the strands are not penetrated by the thread from the sewing machine, resulting in loose strands that may be pulled from the mophead in use. After the sewing operation, the thread extending between the mopheads is cut which results in the end stitches pulling out due to the sudden decrease in tension. Therefore, the strands at either side of the mophead are not secured in any manner and are easily withdrawn from the mophead during use.

It follows, that the more strands that are inadvertently removed from the mophead, the looser the tape becomes around the remaining strands and the easier it is for them to be inadvertently removed until the mop is worthless.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, however, overcomes these disadvantages by replacing the tape or fabric retaining band by a plastic band of material injected into the mid-portion of the mophead, surrounding and actually penetrating substantially all of the strands to completely secure them together. The individual strands are thus bonded at the mid-portion, and there is no possibility of individdual strands becoming inadvertently removed from the 3,512,203 Patented May 19, 1970,

mophead. Moreover, the invention includes a means for attaching the mophead to a handle wherein an upstanding member on one side of the plastic band of material which bonds the strands together receives a complementary shaped end of the handle.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved mophead which eliminates the possibility of strands becoming inadvertently removed from the mophead.

It is another and more specific object of this invention to provide an improved mophead wherein the mid-portions of the individual strands are bonded together toprevent inadvertent removal during use.

It is yet another and more specific object of this invention to provide an improved mophead wherein a polyvinyl chloride plastic or other suitable material is injection molded or otherwise applied under-heavy pressure into and around the mid-portions of the mop yarns to bond them together.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a new and simple means for attaching a mophead to a mop handle wherein an upstanding member on the mophead receives or engages a complementary end portion of a mop handle.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the claims and the accompanying drawings in which- I FIG. 1 is an environmental view showing a mophead according to the prior manufacturing techniques;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, sectional view, with parts broken away, taken substantially along line 2-2 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an environmental view of the mophead of the present invention assembled to a standard mop handle;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the mophead, with parts broken away, according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, sectional view, with parts broken away, taken substantially along lines 55 in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an environmental view with parts broken away similar to FIG. 3, but showing an improved means for securing a mophead to a mop handle according to the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is an environmental view similar to FIG. 6, but showing a modified form of the invention.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a mophead 10 according to the prior art manufacturing techniques wherein a group of absorbent strands 12 are bunched together and surrounded by a fabric tape 14. The rmophead is then fed into a sewing machine where stitches 16 are applied to secure the tape to and around the individual strands 12.

FIG. 2 more clearly illustrates the disadvantages of mopheads as manufactured by prior art techniques. One of the disadvantages is apparent in the strands 18 adjacent the cured portion 21 of tape 14. Tape 14 extends around outer strands 18, however, in mass producing mop heads, the sewing machine sews a continuous row of stitches from one mop head to the next succeeding mop being processed through the sewing station. Therefore, the stitches do not extend around the end 21 of tape 14, and when the thread is cut, separating two successive mopheads, the thread 16 pulls back due to the slackening of tension and leaves extended thread ends 22. The strands 18 between the last stitch 15 and end portion 21 of tape 14 are not penetrated by any thread, and depend solely upon the tightness of the tape 14 therearound to hold them in place. As can be seen from FIG. 2, the tape cannot be made tight enough to prevent strands 18, not caught by the needle, from pulling out. This disadvantage is especially accented on heavier mopheads designed for use with buckets having wringers.

The other disadvantage with the prior art devices appears between stitches 15, where there are other strands 20 which are not penetrated by thread 16, and are likely to become displaced during use.

Turning now to the mophead 30 of the present invention, FIG. 4 shows a group of absorbent strands 32 doubled upon themselves adjacent their mid-portion similar to strands 12 in FIG. 1. According to the invention, a band 34 of plastic material is injected under heavy pressure around the mid-portion of the group of strands 32. The plastic surrounds and penetrates the individual strands 38, so that the strands are actually bonded together. A pair of raised ridges 36 extend lengthwise along each side of band 34 for reasons to be hereinafter described.

The plastic is preferably plasticized polyvinyl chloride having a Shore scale reading of between 15-75 on the Shore D scale and is injection molded to produce the desired hardness. It is to be realized that plastic of a hardness outside this range will bond the strands together, however if the plastic is too hard, it will become brittle and continued bending, such as a mophead undergoes, will cause it to crack. Also, if the plastic is too soft, the bond formed will be inadequate.

A molding process as described above will cause the plastic to totally penetrate each strand which results in a tighter bond, and practically a completely plasticized band. This is also advantageous in that the strands which are plasticized become impervious to water and will not become soaked, which causes the mid-portion to become sour, smell, and eventually rot, as had been the case in the mopheads of the prior art. It is to be understood that a lesser pressure may bond the strands together without penetrating each strand, and thus, the mophead produced might be adequate for the use intended.

It is to be recognized that other bonding agents may be used such as nylon, polypropylene, polyethylene, or plastisol, and other means might be used to bond the strands together. Such changes are considered to be within the scope of this invention.

FIG. 3 shows a standard mop 40 having a handle 42 and a mop engaging portion including a bearing plate 44 and a securing wire 46. The mop 30 is placed between bearing plate 44 and restraining wire 46. The bearing plate 44 is bifurcated to define portions 48 and 50, one of which is positioned outside each of ridges 36 on the band 34. Restraining wire 46 is positioned between ridges 36 on the opposite side of plastic band 34, and the bearing plate 44 and restraining wire 46 are then urged toward each other by some means such as a spring, not shown, in a standard manner. lAssembled as described, the ridges prevent lateral movement or skewing of the mophead during use, and securely hold the mophead in position.

Another means of attaching the mophead to an appropriate handle is shown in FIG. 6 wherein plastic band 60 has been slightly modified to include an upwardly extending boss 62 protruding from one side of the band 60. A threaded passageway '64 extends into boss 62 from the upper surface thereof, and receives the externally threaded end 66 of handle '68. In this embodiment, ridges 36 provided on plastic band 34 may be eliminated, because their need has been obviated. Also, it is to be recognized that upstanding boss 62 might be externally threaded and received in a threaded passageway in the end of handle 68 without departing from the spirit of the invention.

A third means for attaching the mophead 30 to a bandle is shown in FIG. 7, wherein plastic band 70 includes an upstanding socket member 72 molded integral therewith. Socket member 72 includes a resilient, annular, inturned lip 74 extending around the upper open end thereof. A complimentary ball end 76 is provided on one end of handle 78 and is releasably engaged by the inturned lip 74 of socket 72 for use with mophead 30. As in FIG. 6, the ball 76 and socket 72 could be reversed so that a ball member extends upwardly from plastic band and snaps into a socket on the end of handle 78.

There is thus provided a mophead wherein the strands are securely bonded together, and the mid-portion of the mophead is immune to becoming soaked and rotting. The mophead of the present invention is also more adapted to a continuous process of manufacture than mopheads as previously manufactured because the prior mopheads required a transverse movement of the mopheads through a sewing machine, while the injection molding process may be performed in the continuous line of production, not requiring any transverse movement of the bunched group of strands.

In the drawings and specification there have been set forth preferred embodiments of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in the claims.

I claim:

1. A. mophead comprising a bunch of strands of normally water absorbent mop material doubled upon themselves adjacent their mid-portion, band means for bonding said strands together adjacent their mid-point only, said band means comprising a water impervious plastic material surounding each strand and adhering to the adjacent strands, said plastic material totally penetrating the strands of mop material as well as surrounding them, whereby the mid-portion of said mophead becomes impervious to water, said band means adapted to be coupled to a handle.

2. The mophead according to claim 1 wherein the plastic is polyvinyl chloride.

3. The mophead according to claim 1 wherein a pair of integral ridges extend longitudinally along at least one side of said plastic band to prevent skewing of the mophead when held by a mop handle.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,239,686 4/ 1941 Owens. 2,366,877 1/ 1945 Schlegel 15230.12 2,902,704 9/ 1959 Schwartz. 3,006,011 10/ 1961 Littleton. 3,011,198 12/1961 Moss. 3,081,474 3/ 1963 Modrak. 3,111,700 11/1963 OBrien et a1. 2,492,232 12/ 1949 Martin.

FOREIGN PATENTS 102,928 1/ 1938 Australia. 201,363 8/ 1923 Great Britain.

DANIEL BLUM, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 15145 

